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Jaime Johnesee brings readers into close proximity of a friendly zombie who is just trying to deal with his existence and the world around him.

Bob is now a zombie, and it’s all because his mother missed him too much to let him rest in peace. Now he has to deal with the new “life” he’s been dealt – there’s no way out.

He shares his struggles with his new friends and horde as he tries to help others out in his own kind way.

This book is a fun, playful, entertaining read that I can see teens loving, especially if they have short attention spans; it’s short. But, for me, it missed the mark on a couple points.

The plot in Bob the Zombie was almost nonexistent, as if it were an afterthought, thrown in half-heartedly. There was little conflict that would push the character/story forward. Also, I have to wonder if Bob was one of those people (before he became a zombie) that everyone avoided because he over shared. Like that person that if you sat by them on the bus would tell you the intimate details of his life whether you wanted to know them or not. Why do I say this? Because he shares everything about himself in what seems like a nonstop info dump. There is no mystery involved in his existence. The read tells everything in big clumps. This leads to it being great for younger readers who are eager for everything to make complete sense with no effort or tension involved. The book is more of a “memoir” of Bob’s life than an actual story, especially with the weaknesses in conflict and plot.

A Mouth So Dark: This tale is about a boy who goes in search of a girl he cares for after her new guardian takes her away. He feels something is amiss and he is right.

Darkness in the West: A woman is sentenced to be hanged when she kills men who were after her father’s land.

The Flood: Two societal outcasts get revenge on the town that didn’t take the time to understand them.

I’m going to go through the tales one by one…

A Mouth So Dark: This story was not well fleshed out. The author failed to add any major conflict to the story and the resolution was too fast and devoid of any creativity. It was very disappointing.

Darkness in the West: This “story” wasn’t a story at all, but maybe the beginning of one. It just started to get interesting and it was over with nothing really to take away, because there wasn’t much there but set up.

The Flood: This was basically a supernatural tale with no set up. It was disjointed and not well played out.

On top of the above reasons of why I didn’t care for the stories of this book, there are the grammar mistakes and the mostly telling, not showing, aspect of the writer’s angle. All of these stories could be improved on if the author learns the craft of writing better and expands them out to full stories, not just hints of stories.

ASIN: B007PLST5U
An old man imparts a tale to a young sailor; it’s a tale of his past where the “Risen” roamed the seas freely. A “Mambo” (voodoo priestess) has the answer to the problem and is ready to sacrifice herself to save others.

Things don’t go exactly as planned, and although the Risen are taken care of, other issues arise.

This is an interesting and delightful pirate tale with dark elements, and I enjoyed it! I would definitely read more from Mr. Kosh.

Unfortunately there were some inconsistencies in accented dialogue, some grammar, and ebook formatting that I couldn’t overlook in my rating.

David Moody takes his readers on an emotion and physical ride through his nightmare of world ending destruction.

Steven and Sam experience an extremely personal emotion trauma, which neither of them really knows how to handle.

Steven shuts himself off and drowns himself in work. This affects their marriage badly.

While they’re dealing with their own life and hearts, the sun is on the verge of killing itself and the world.

Things around them keep getting worse, but they don’t pay close attention because they’re more concerned with their marriage and keeping things as normal as possible.

It’s not until Sam leaves to visit her father that Steven realizes his mistakes, but with the world falling apart faster than anyone thought possible, will he make it to her in time to straighten things out before it’s too late?

He races the deadly effects of the sun’s wrath to see the woman he loves one last time…but will he burn to death before he reaches her?

This book hit me a little too close to home for comfort – I was proud of myself for not bawling during the first few chapters. I’ve had personal experience (twice) with the traumatic, emotion struggle the couple deals with. That being said, Mr. Moody nailed it – the shutting off and distancing and the struggle with knowing how to deal with the situation at home and in public.

I thought the apocalyptic sun aspect of the story was fun, because it was different and there was no way anyone could really do anything about it. It’s the classic “the boat is going down and we’re all screwed” scenario that you don’t see too often anymore. Most people want at least that hope of salvation through some miracle. There’s none in this book. Just the hope of love and forgiveness.

I thought Steven’s journey was a bit long, but in reality, all that stuff probably would be in someone’s path to slow them down. In the end, it just showed his determination to make it where he wanted to go despite how much got in his way. Although, toward the end…he was really, really exhausted, but then flipped completely and could do things like walk and run easily that minutes before he couldn’t.

Rusty Fischer turns the zombie genre on its head; nothing is of the norm, but it’s all still fun.

A seventeen-year-old girl named Maddy thinks her life is just starting to look up when the newest, hottest guy at her school asks her to a party. She doesn’t tell her best friend, because Hazel always has to be the center of attention and gets pissed off when she’s not.

Maddy sneaks out to go to the party, but it starts to storm while she’s walking there. She gets struck by lightning and goes down – she thinks for a few minutes, but for a couple hours – and turns for home because she’s a muddy mess and the lights are out at the house where the party was.

Once she gets home she realizes she doesn’t have a heartbeat and she’s not breathing. She panics and goes online to do a search for the “norms” of zombies. She’s informed, after taking a brief test, that she is a zombie and unless she wants to die for real, she has to eat brains, and soon!

She sneaks out again, this time to go to the all night grocer to ask for brains (an odd request). While she’s waiting, two odd-balls from her school show up and ask what she’s doing there. She fakes like she needed something else, but when the butcher brings out her brains, she’s busted.

They follow her out to the parking lot and she learns she’s not the only zombie around. As a matter of fact, they have to take her to register with the zombie counsel. They soon become her two new best friends.

Things just keep getting worse as Hazel gets curious as to the changes in Maddy’s life and appearance, Maddy learns there are bad zombies, and all hell breaks loose at their school dance.

Maddy has to choose between her life as she once knew it, and her new life as a zombie. And, on top of that, she’s confused about her feeling for two completely different guys.

I enjoyed this book (I read it in three days). I can see teen girls loving it. It’s a fun zombie story without the gore type horror. The book was extremely well edited – mistakes were few and far between.

Mark Taylor brings a fresh burn of imagination to the reader with his suspense, thriller Shutter Speed.

Shutter Speed starts out with a young boy named Jimmy, who has an abusive father. Jimmy likes to take pictures. Well, more than that… He likes to let places tell stories through his pictures. All of this leads him to being away from home a lot, taking pictures.

When a particular old building under renovations catches his eye and he can’t resist the urge to tell its story, even though he has to sneak in through the window. Everything is old, beautiful, and full of secrets, but it’s definitely not safe.

Two older boys also break into the building, and what they do to Jimmy really burns him up and changes his family life forever.

After what happened…his family had to move, and he had to change his name. The past was just too much for them to carry around for the rest of their lives.

Fast forward YEARS later…

The reader is introduced to a group of young men on the wrong side of the law and you start wondering… “Which one of them is Jimmy?” And just when you think you know, your mind is spun again with an evil laugh from the author while Jimmy strikes again, and again, and again.

In the end…everything comes back to that old building, the one with stories to tell through the lense of Jimmy’s camera. And even though he’s the one taking the pictures, he’s wrong about how the building’s story turns out.

Shutter Speed was a fun story that kept me guessing through most of the book. The characters are interesting, but are many for such a short book. I found it confusing at times, but they all served their purpose to the story in some way.

There were some formatting issues with the book – the words overlapped onto the header in a couple places, but I could still read it. There were extra spaces between paragraphs and breaks here and there, and there were a lot of wrong, missing, or extra words. There were also a few issues with punctuation.

Suzanne Collins brings us back into the world of District 13 where the rebellion is in full swing, and Katniss is out of control.

Katniss is the Mockingjay – the symbol of the rebellion to all the people of the districts. She has flaunted her contempt of the Capitol twice, and they want her to do it again.

She doesn’t want to. She’s injured…and scared for Peeta, who was captured and taken to Panem. They didn’t get him out of the arena.

She is now dealing with a controlled existence, although it’s not like the Capitol’s control – there is plenty of food, but people have a purpose and schedule. But she suffers through being underground in safety for her family’s sake.

Eventually, through much convincing, she agrees to be their “Mockingjay,” but she has her own terms for her giving the service. President Coin doesn’t like her, she can feel it, but it gets worse after she delivers her terms. But Katniss will do anything to save the lives of the victors from the arena who are now at the mercy of Panem.

Peeta is one of those conditions. But, what they bring back to District 13 is an abomination of Peeta; he’s no longer himself.

With her best and oldest friend, Gale, Katniss learns to be the Mockingjay…her way. She becomes not only the symbol, but the spirit of the rebellion. And, when things get difficult, she goes rogue so she can finally have a chance at ending the war and bringing an end to President Snow once and for all.

This comes at a very high price…one that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Even after she decides which man she really loves and starts a life with him in peace and freedom.

Again, I’m still not fond of Suzanne Collins’ writing style, which I found flat and kind of dull. And this book, more than the first two, shows off that weakness in writing. Where in the other books Katniss was strong and rose to meet challenges, in this book she was wishy-washy; instead of developing as a character, she regressed. That, on top of Katniss being injured through almost the entire book, made it slower than the previous two. I felt like the author was bored and couldn’t inject any excitement into the story because she wasn’t feeling it. The third book was disappointing for me, so much so, that I have to give it a lower rating. If I hadn’t been vested in the characters from the movies and previous books, I probably wouldn’t have finished reading it. I hope I like the movie more than the book…when it arrives. Otherwise, there were a few minor mistakes in the book with punctuation and extra or missing words here and there.